Is there any advantage to lower efficiency speakers? 87 or below?

I would be surprised to learn that designer would, keeping all things equal, purposefully forgo efficiency to arrive at an 87 db or lower sensitivity.  In other words, designing a speaker that has 90 db efficiency and then padding it down strikes me as bizarre.

This reminds me.....there are lots of anecdotes of 70s/80s era IBM mainframe customers seeking more processing speed, and IBM sending techs out to *remove* a board from the system.  Still makes me laugh.     

There is none only if you like 300b 18watt amps its all personal taste and a well matched system.

In general the main reason to design a less efficient speaker is to enable more extended bass out of a smaller speaker. This has been the popular trend for the most part ever since higher power SS amps started to make their mark.

Hi Puff,

It’s not really desirable, but a speaker designer may end up getting there in order to get enough bass. It’s a little complicated to explain in text, but we can often sacrifice sensitivity for the sake of bass extension. Another way to look at it is not sacrificing but balancing one vs. the other.

This is how Magico’s S1 Mk II behaves, with an 83 dB sensitivity they manage to push out around 50-60 Hz as a lower cut-off.

http://www.soundstagenetwork.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1564:nrc-measu...

While I am not a particular fan of this speaker’s tonal balance, and overall cost of ownership, the overall idea is sound, meaning it’s not a cheat so much as run of the mill speaker design choice.

In my own 2-way speaker with a 6.5" driver I have to sacrifice 6 dB of sensitivity in order to get flat down to the 30-40Hz range, but I end up a little better, around 87 dB sensitivity overall. This is quite typical for speakers designed to be away from room boundaries.  I could have sacrificed even more to get more of a bass rise/bump in the lower end, but for my listening I chose not to.

Best,

E

A lot of meter readers types trying to figure it out end up chasing their tail
 If your concerned with fidelity why not ask your self
 Which speaker makes Johnny Cash sound most like
 Johnny Cash.?
 Best
 JohnnyR